Auckland’s $1.4b view

Planning rules protecting just one view of Mt Eden’s volcanic cone are said to be costing Auckland $1.4 billion in lost development opportunities.

Consultants PWC said the view was seen for just seconds by motorists approaching the Harbour Bridge, and the restriction was limiting both residential and commercial development on the western side of the central business district.

‘‘What we currently see in the city centre is a shadow of what it could be,’’ said PWC’s director of economics, Geoff Cooper.

Cooper said there should be a new discussion about development restrictions imposed by view shafts protected in the city’s planning blueprint, the Unitary Plan in 2016.

‘‘We don’t know much about their costs and benefits, many Aucklanders don’t know they even exist,’’ Cooper said.

But the city’s planning committee chairman, Chris Darby, said the Unitary Plan had struck the right balance between protection and enabling developing.

Cooper, formerly Auckland Council’s chief economist, has spent two years studying the impact of urban planning policy and, with World Bank consultant Kabira Namit, is about to publish a paper, City With A Billion Dollar View.

The paper calculates that each southbound vehicle crossing the bridge each day was paying $14,000 for the view shaft labelled E10.